1. Technical Field
This invention relates in general to telecommunications and, more particularly, to a digital communications system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Over the last two decades, communications capabilities have increased dramatically. Current communication networks are now capable of providing sophisticated features such as multiple party conferencing with multiple private sidebar conversations, programmable “follow-me” calling, and sophisticated voice mail options.
Unfortunately, the main interface to a communication network, the 12-key telephone pad, has not appreciably changed for many decades. As a result, many available features are seldom used, because accessing the features by key sequences is non-intuitive and error-prone. In some cases, features can be provisioned by a user through a computer interface apart from the telephone. For example, follow-me calling allows a user to have a single telephone number which is used to access a number of communication devices associated with the user, such as a home telephone number, a work telephone number, a mobile telephone and voice mail, in a specified sequence. The user can define the sequence in which the communication devices are accessed in relation to certain criteria, such as date and time. In a typical scenario, a user may define a work day sequence where his or her work number is accessed first, a secretarial phone accessed second, a mobile phone accessed third and voice mail accessed fourth; the weekend sequence may be home phone first, mobile phone second and voice mail third. The desired sequence is stored in a database of a network provider. To ease the burden of user programming, some providers have allowed the database to be modified by users through a Web page over an Internet connection. However, use of a separate computer connection is often inconvenient, and Internet provisioning of services can reasonably be used only for certain types of features that do not change often.
Recently, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) was developed to assist in providing advanced telephony services using VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) over a digital communication network (which could include the Internet or other global data network). Using a telephone with a graphical interface, a user can easily create, modify and terminate multiple telecommunications sessions with one or more participants by manipulating objects on the telephone screen.
Each SIP phone manufacturer is free to design its own GUI. This is both a strength and a weakness of a SIP Phone. On the one hand, a user can choose a phone that has desirable interface characteristics. On the other hand, the user's ability to have multiple SIP phones from multiple manufacturers is impeded by the requirement of learning different interfaces for each phone. A user is likely to become accustomed to a single interface and will face difficulties using telephones with different interfaces. Since a single home or office may use telephones from multiple manufacturers, the advantages of using a SIP phone for simplified access to advanced features are greatly diminished.
Therefore, a need has arisen for a method and apparatus for providing a consistent user interface to telephones from multiple manufacturers.